-Blade-Central Arizona College Baseball Beat

(Thatcher) - "It was a REALLY tough day for both teams" said head coach Anthony Gilich.

The Wednesday double header against South Mountain was a rescheduled DH because the Tuesday game was rained out and although it was clear and dry on Wednesday, it was barely fifty degrees and the wind had gusts up to forty miles per hour.

I can't remember two worse back-to-back weather days in this state going back a long time.

Horrible.

"But it was bad for both teams" continued Gilich.

"Some balls were really ripped and ended up being pop-outs or maybe even doubles, and not a whole lot of miscues defensively for both teams, but the few there were were surely because of the conditions."

Central lost the first game of the DH Wednesday 5-1 in seven innings, but won the final four games of the week by winning the DH game two against South Mountain, beating a pretty good Community Christian College of California on Friday, and a very nice double header sweep down in Thatcher against Eastern Arizona Saturday afternoon.

"We tell our guys to win the week and it's a post-season mentality" said Gilich.

"Post season winning is all about the week."

So far so good.

On Saturday, Tugboat was Tugboat, doing his thing, striking out 11 in seven innings and the two runs Eastern scored were unearned as Central scored a run in the second off of a bases-loaded balk, and got a line shot off the shortstop's glove from catcher Lou Albrecht to score two in the third for a 3-2 win.

It was Matt Wilkinson with the game one complete game, walking only one, which turned out to be the only walk of the week-end. Wilkinson is now 4-0 with an ERA of 1.20, and striking out 14 batters every nine innings.

"They had a really good pitcher too" said Gilich.

"He lost to western Arizona in a 1-0 ball game so we knew he was good, and he was."

The DH for the game was Jonathon Hernandez and he rapped two doubles.

In game two Saturday, it was Patrick Steitz as the starter and again, another, quiet, non-eventful, nothing-really-to-report outing, because he does the same thing every start.

His job.

A hit or two here and there, strikes out at least one guy an inning, get's plenty of ground balls and before you know it, he's got another solid outing.

Steitz is now 3-1 with a 2.29 ERA. Solid and consistent.

Marcus Harrison hit a two run double and  grounded in another run with bases loaded, and the Vaqueros cracked four other doubles to take game two with a final of 10-1.

Blake Avila, Prince DeBoskie doubled, and red-hot hitting shortstop Luke Thiele doubled twice. Thiele leads the team in hitting as we wake up Sunday, with a .447 batting average.

Tyrese Johnson stepped into the leadoff position and got two hits and walked in game two as Bass Tomerlin sat for a few games, after being stung on the hand with a pitch on that miserable Wednesday.

Central collected 21 hits on the day, and after Steitz's 6.1 innings thrown, Luke Meyers and Mario Bejarano closed 'er out, no walks between the three.

We've seen what Josh Aribal can do out of the bullpen, and something says, we'll see a lot more from Meyers and Bejarano real soon.

You can add about four or five others non-starters to that list, once they see the innings. The team ERA is 2.95 and the staff is striking out just about 14 per nine innings.

At 8-2 in conference play, the Green and Gold are in first place out there in Coolidge with lots to go.

Again...so far so good!